The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities.

The poet produces the beautiful by fixing his attention on something real.

It is not my business to think about myself. My business is to think about God. It is for God to think about me.

All those who possess in its pure state the love of their neighbour and the acceptance of the order of the world, inclucing affliction-all those, even should they live and die to all appearances atheists, are surely saved.

Everything without exception which is of value in me comes from somewhere other than myself, not as a gift but as a loan which must be ceaselessly renewed.

If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money.

Power ... is the supreme end for all those who have not understood.